


Blessed Assurance

by KrisseyCrystal (IceCreAMS)



Series: Fluff Bingo [26]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bonding, Coming Out, Drabble, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff Bingo, Gen, Trans Bethany
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28866417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceCreAMS/pseuds/KrisseyCrystal
Summary: Bethany decides it's time to have an important conversation with the other members of the Hawke family.
Series: Fluff Bingo [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1655521
Kudos: 4





	Blessed Assurance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LovelyLessie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyLessie/gifts).



> oh goodness it's been AGES since i fulfilled one of my fluff bingo prompts...I think i got this prompt like, half a year ago?? more than?? I'm SO SORRY it took me so long to fulfill this!! it's SUCH a good prompt though, that I've literally not been able to stop thinking about it since i got it... "coming out w/ support" + trans!bethany??? absolutely a gem of a prompt...thank you...
> 
> i hope you enjoy this little drabble <3

_Hey, Carver,_ Bethany says because if there was someone she was going to tell first, it was her twin brother. She knows him better than she knows anyone else, and he knows her, and really, even though they don’t always get along, he’s always supported her and defended her and that’s all she supposes she can ask for in an idiot for a twin.

_What?_ he says without looking up from his very important Minecraft server.

_Can you call me Bethany from now on? I’m not…I’m—uh—_ She takes a deep breath that feels a mile long. _I’m—_

_Yeah, sure._ He takes out a zombie before he’s finished speaking. He doesn’t look away from his screen.

Bethany nods into the silence that follows. She feels a little dazed. A little disappointed. At first, she is afraid he didn’t truly hear her; she’s afraid she doesn’t know her twin as well as she likes to think she does. Is that casual response born from genuine and quick acceptance, or does he not understand? Should she try again? 

Before she can open her mouth, Carver pauses his game. _Wait._

He turns to her and there’s a furrow to his two fuzzy caterpillar brows that she doesn’t know what to do with. She rings the hem of her sweatshirt and stares back until he says, _Does this mean you’ll finally stop borrowing my clothes?_

Bethany blinks. 

Her face floods pink. _Is that what you’re worried about?_

_I mean, I_ wasn’t _worried until you avoided my question. Now I’m thinking I still have to hide my Jordans._

_You have_ Jordans?!

They argue for a few minutes and it’s just like normal. It’s just as it always is. If at one point, Carver yells her name, her _real_ name, her _true_ name—loud and frustrated, authentic and perfect—perhaps she can be forgiven for suddenly and violently storming out of his room in order to smile to herself in the hallway, overcome with relief that absolutely nothing between them has changed at all.

And yet, simultaneously, everything has, too.

* * *

In the kitchen, Mom bursts into tears when she tells her and at first, Bethany feels a flash of fear. All she can think, over and over again, is: Oh no. Is Mom disappointed? Hurt? Mom is more difficult than Carver to anticipate the reaction of, because she is sure Mom loves her, but Mom is the one who has the most friends her age who do not understand these things. 

The instant Mom hugs her, however, it becomes crystal clear her tears are born of joy.

_I’m so glad you told me,_ she says into Bethany’s hair. _I’m so glad you trust me._

And Mom isn’t perfect and Mom messes up once in their conversation afterward, but the way Mom holds her hands and squeezes them tight comforts her.

Mom will try, at the very least.

* * *

It’s Garrett who Bethany is the most apprehensive in telling, not for any other reason other than the fact that he’s the one she looks up to the _most_ out of everyone else. Garrett’s opinion, so often, is Law. Garrett’s opinion, so often, is the Word. And not necessarily because Garrett wants it to be, but just because he’s so cool, it so often _is._

Bethany strides up to him when he gets back from walking Mabari, and the words are ready and waiting on her mouth, running over and over again through her head.

When she says, _I want to talk to you about something,_ he says, _Sure. What’s up?_

The words come out of her mouth half in the order that she crafted them, half out of order, in some weird, scrambled up mess that shakes on the consonants. _I’ve been thinking a lot lately—about gender and about…about me. About who I am and who I was and who I want to be._

Garrett’s eyes, when he focuses on her, make her feel like she is the most important person in the world.

_Okay,_ he says.

She takes a breath and pulls on her pinky. _I…I’ve come to the realization that I think…I’m not—um—I think I want to be your sister. Not your brother._

His dark eyebrows lift. And not in a bad way—not in a way that suddenly and horrible and cruelly makes her doubt herself—but instead, almost like something has dawned on him. Somewhere deep in his mind, a lightbulb has flickered on. 

Bethany continues, _So…_

_Do you have a name picked out?_

_Yeah. I like, uh, the sound of ‘Bethany.’_

_‘Bethany,’_ Garrett repeats and her name hangs off his mouth, rolls over his tongue. He looks thoughtful for a moment, then he says, _I like it._

_You do?_ Not that she needed him to approve her name, she thinks, but she is glad to have it nonetheless. 

_Yeah._ Garrett grins at her. His wide, cheeky grin, that she loves to see so much on him. He looks so sporty with that grin, she thinks; so debonair. He’ll woo someone someday with it, or many someones, maybe. He’s the most popular one out of all of the Hawkes. _I love it. Always wanted a sister._

Warmth floods through her, winging across her shoulders and settling happily the center of her chest. 

He hugs her, and they talk for hours there on the front porch, reveling in the comfort that is the affirming present. 

**Author's Note:**

> [tw](https://twitter.com/kissykrissey) / [tblr](https://krisseycrystal.tumblr.com/)


End file.
